Stockland's well-publicised three "R" strategy of residential, retail and retirement is under review as the group reported another earnings downgrade and the pending departure of its long-serving managing director Matthew Quinn.

It is the second downgrade issued by the group this year and is a reflection of the tough times in the residential sector.

In late March Mr Quinn issued a warning that the group's earnings for the 2012 year would be revised down by about 4.4 per cent, to 30.2 cents per security.

Mr Quinn attributed the decline to financing issues for home buyers and the dreadful weather in the eastern states during the summer

Mr Quinn, 50, today said the earnings forecast will now be 29.3 cents because of a combination of restructuring costs due to extensive staff redundancies, fewer shares purchased in the share buy-back and timing of super-lot settlements.

It expects these one-off restructuring costs to provide savings in the current 2013 financial year.

Review begins

Real estate analysts from Goldman Sachs said its earnings and target price for Stockland are under review.

"Our existing 2012 financial year earnings per security estimate is 29.8 cents and is based on shares bought back to date and not a “planned” number," they said.

"So if we strip out the impact of the one-off restructuring costs and timing differences with super-lot settlements, this does imply a slightly lower than expected operating result in 2012."

The analysts at Moelis & Company told clients that with regard to the ongoing strategy an obvious area to address is the “3 R's” approach and particularly what happens with the retirement business.

They said that at the very least they would like to see this spun off into a separate company (and potentially merged with a de-merged FKP portfolio) to address the high operating cost base, and allow investors who like this sub-sector to have a “pure-play” retirement entity.